Security officers working under labour brokers have made yet another appeal to the City of Tshwane Municipality and the EFF and ActionSA to insource them as promised.
The aggrieved security officers insist that before the EFF got back into power as part of the coalition that is ruling the City of Tshwane Municipality, it promised to absorb them as permanent workers of the City of Tshwane with the perks and benefits that go with decently-employed workers.
“EFF please stop hiding and fulfill your promise to insource us,” said an aggrieved Joshua Mudau who introduced himself as chairperson of a structure that represents security officers and cleaners working at City of Tshwane Municipality buildings.
Mudau said this during a mini- picket held by the disgruntled security officers at Church Square in the City centre of Tshwane before they marched to the headquarters of the Municipality on Thursday to ask EFF and ActionSA leaders to fulfill their promise to insource them.
“ActionSA and EFF used to engage us as security officers with promises of insourcing us once they got into power and we are happy about the response we got from ActionSA’s Hannes Coetzee (MMC for Community Safety) and regional chairperson Derrick Mahlangu because they came out to meet us,” said Mudau.
“One of our demands is to have a proper meeting with City of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and EFF leader in Tshwane Obakeng Ramabodu to find an amicable solution to the issue of insourcing,” said Mudau.
“It feels like the EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu and Tshegofatso Mashabela (MMC for Health) don’t take us seriously because they promised to meet us at lunch-time but they have not showed up, and we want to say to them that we are not fighting with them but are trying to find a solution to our plight,” he said.
He said the EFF and ActionSA are the parties that have all along been “preaching” about insourcing them.
“Before these two parties came into power in Tshwane last year they used to march and sleep with us here outside the Tshwane House premises in demand for insourcing and we are not sure if they are ashamed of us now as security officers and don’t want to engage us anymore; they are cruising in blue lights vehicles now and body guards and they are sending a wrong message to the people on the ground, because we are humans and we don’t take lightly to their failure to fulfill their promise to insource us,” said Mudau emphatically.
“We feel like we have been used by the EFF and ActionSA to get into power because our votes are the ones which have put them in their present lucrative positions in the City of Tshwane,” he said.
“The relationship between the EFF and security officers is like that of an abusive one between a girlfriend and a boyfriend,” he said.
In response to to the demands of the security officers, ActionSA’s Tshwane regional leader Derick Mahlangu said the following:
“Our position is that we are against the exploitation of workers in general and security officers in particular because when one enters any premises these are the people that one meets and their job is very important as they are responsible for keeping the City of Tshwane Municipality’s buildings safe.”
Mahlangu said “right now we can’t take a stand regarding the issue of insourcing until it is formalised in a meeting with security officers because there is a feasibility study regarding the costs and implications of insourcing the remainder of security officers and cleaners who are still working under labour brokers.”.
He said it is a great start that security officers have been given equipment and T-shirts to work with.
“We have not failed security officers and cleaners because it takes time to implement the feasibility study we are talking about here, which was sent to the University of Pretoria and the Mayoral Committee for research to make sure that it is implementable and doesn’t throttle the finances of the City,” he said.
“We admit that security officers and cleaners in the City of Tshwane Municipality earn salaries that are below the breadline and on many instances they have to resort to asking for monetary loans from loan sharks (mashonisa) as they go for long periods without getting paid,” he said.